Seychelles Leader Calls for Energy Crisis Meet to Mitigate Global Food Shortage

Text of report in English by Seychelles Nation newspaper website on 4 June

[Unattributed report: "President Calls for High-Level Meeting on Energy Crisis"]

President James Michel called yesterday for the new United Nations task force on the global food crisis to tackle the “inextricably linked” question of the energy crisis as well.

Addressing the high-level conference called by the Food and Agriculture Organization at its headquarters in Rome, Italy, President Michel proposed that a high level conference be convened on this issue “which is a matter of grave concern to all of us”.

Welcoming the decision to set up the task force, Mr Michel however said the food situation could not be solved without solving the energy crisis.

“Let us seriously look at helping poorer countries to develop alternative sources of energy -hydropower, solar and wind energy,” he said.

“I would also ask the task force to consider the special case of small island states when proposing solutions to this crisis. I would ask them to take into consideration our vulnerabilities.

“The price of food in Seychelles and other small islands is escalating beyond the means of island people, essentially forcing many of us back into poverty. We have implemented various measures to alleviate the hardship brought about by the global increase in food prices, but we are slowly running out of options.”

Mr Michel opened his speech by saying that the hunger, malnutrition and starvation that are the lot of millions of the world’s people make a mockery of human dignity and of humanity’s most basic need and its most basic right -the right to adequate food.

“Food security is at the core of our very survival,” he said. “While food accounts for just 10 per cent of expenditure in households in the developed world, it can account for as much as 80 per cent in the developing world.

“The recent surge in grain prices has led to huge increases in the price of bread, milk, meat and other commodities. More than ever the threat of starvation on a global scale looms. With it looms the threat of violent upheaval.”

The President said the immediate challenge is how to bring adequate food at affordable prices to ordinary people. Recently there have been riots in some countries over soaring prices and at least one government has fallen.

“The divide between rich and poor is widening by the day,” he said. “If we do not act now, it will create more refugees in search of basic human needs -food and shelter.”

Mr Michel stressed that food security, climate change and, more recently, bioenergy are closely linked. As islanders we know full well the meaning of climate change, experiencing it through shrinking islands, changing weather patterns and the dwindling of fish stocks, he added.

The President returned to a subject he raised recently at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development -that Seychelles does not get a fair return from its fish stocks, its “blue gold”.

“Fish may seem abundant, but persistent over-harvesting and illegal fishing resulting from the growing global trade in seafood is eroding food security in our small islands,” he said.

“Nor are we reaping the proper benefits from our blue gold. Some 380,000 tons of tuna are caught and transshipped from the Seychelles Exclusive Economic Zone every year, mostly by European Union countries.

“This is worth 3.8 billion on the international market. The revenue that Seychelles derives from this in licence and transshipment fees is a mere 15 million. Is this fair? Is this just? We are unequal partners in this global trade. As long as the terms of global trade -free trade, as we are wont to call it -remain skewed, developing countries will continue to suffer deprivation.”

Originally published by Seychelles Nation website, Victoria, in English 4 Jun 08.

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